neilworms

Jake's photos are a bit too late, the anger and hostility is towards the rowhouses which were already torn down when he took those photos - look at what JYP posted via pointy collars to see what I mean.

Bond Hill wasn't exactly the most urban part of the city either. Personally the city should concentrate on making Walnut Hills more than a series of parks oh well.

Wait, are you serious? My dad lives two miles from PIA. That would SIGNIFICANTLY improve my life. Okay now I need to start lobbying for train service to Chicago from Peoria :P

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/customers-out-in-the-cold-balk-at-uber-surge-pricing/?_r=0 http://gothamist.com/2012/11/04/uber.php Pretty extreme examples, but really stick to lyft or a regular cab on new years.

Right now Uber typically has so many more cars on the road in Cincinnati that you'll usually have a car get to you more quickly. But come on -- just wait five more minutes and you can save $5-10 on a ride of any distance, then give a tip directly to your driver. And by that I mean give a cash tip, don't tip through the app. Tips that are paid through the app will be taxed at about a 35% rate. Its still infinitely better than a cab in most parts of Cincy where you might wait 30 mins on a good day :P. Also I'll keep the cash tip in mind next time I use Lyft in any town.

Exactly the reason why I use Lyft the stupid things is uber has a way better marketing team

Not a photo but I found this youtube video of Cincinnati at Christmas time back in the 1930s: I've wanted to take a time machine back to that era to see how vibrant the city was, this is probably the best footage I've seen (wish I could find even better). Note the crowds crowding into the bus for Mariemont...

All the powerful players in Cincy are hyperfocused on Uptown, that's been obvious for a long time...

As it looks like that area's been cleared away for a while, it would be nice to see it become something of a minor business district again...

Found it really weird that they painted it red considering it was a frog.

Nice photos, fall in Chicago is quite wonderful (wish I could say the same thing about second winter - er Spring). Btw, in addition to the South Loop another really great area that is taking shape is North and Clyborn, the New City development is finally filling in a gigantic gap to make that area whole again :) http://bucksbaumrp.com/new-city.html I need to stop by Block 37 again, I'd like to see it be a functioning retail place considering all the hoopolah that went into building it - perhaps when the Kriskindlemart starts up and its a warm refuge nearby. :)

By national standards Cincinnati's development is slow and steady (though OTR is gentrifying at a rapid clip even on a national scale). The changes in Cincinnati have been monumental by its own perverse standards let me review a few things that have changed: 1) Emergence of a hip new restaurant scene (hat tip to Senate and Taste of Belgium for this) - most of the restaurants in the Gateway part of OTR are at a level that is well above the standard for Cincinnati as a whole and this is a good thing. I never thought a place that would be as well designed as Kaze would be in Cincy, or I'd be eating food as exotic as Okonomiyaki at Quan Hapa, or gourmet tacos of the quality one would find at Big Star in Chicago down there at Bakersfield. 2) Breweries - Cincinnati is reclaiming a lost brewing heritage with a vengeance, its been slow to start but I really get the feeling that people down there are owning it. The Brewery district, the stuff Christian Moerlien and Rhiengeist have done are very impressive. Rhiengeist even has plans to add a rooftop bar, and integrate A Tavola into its lower level, how cool is that? 3) Younger people with more of a "can do attitude" - I honestly think there is a generational shift afoot, younger people are more questioning of the status quo and are starting to talk to each other in ways I haven't seen largely due to new forums for discussion (like this one for instance or urban cincy or facebook etc). There are now tours in OTR, I saw a guide made by city beat trying to sell the city to outsiders, I've seen the emergence of tours of beer tunnels and more people talking about preservation as an actual issue. 4) Loss of some social conservatism - There now is a openly gay council member, article 12 was turned down, the idiot group for family values is no longer active like they were just 7 or 8 years ago. I don't see another Mapplethorpe happening, in fact if you've noticed the exhibits at the 21C museum there are a ton which that particular group would have been up in arms about. Not a peep from them and that's amazing progress. 5) Fights to make things better actually being won. The streetcar is the biggest example of this, the old Cincinnati I knew would have defeated it the first time it was challenged, or at the very least it would have died when Cranley tried to kill it. There was a massive revolt which was part of a broader cultural revolution which is taking place that killed it. (Only reason Qualls lost was that she ran a bad campaign - if she built a stronger coalition, got more people to vote, and was a little nastier Cranley would have been toast). There are plenty of others, look at the furniture building at 12th and main. In the old Cincy it would have been torn down by now, but just today that was denied and Stough is going to have to sell. OTR is more unified and more active than ever and this is something that will over time spread to more of the city. 6) A much improved music scene. My brother told me about the flaming lips coming to bunbury, they never used to come to Cincinnati. Ditto with MPMF, its really grown and is starting to attract outside attention. A few new venues have popped up to to foster this. Change is hard esp when so many are resistant to it, but I'm actually very optimistic for Cincy, which is a hell of a lot more than I could have said for the city 8 years ago when frankly I felt it would stew in its own misery and kill itself. The change has been so fast btw, that a ton of people don't understand how to handle it, some people think Cincy is right now in a SF style gentrification crisis (lol) others literally are like oh the streetcar won't get built etc etc.

Then why have a donation page on the Cincinnati parks association: https://www.gcfdn.org/tabid/251/default.aspx?tp=1000&fn=green%20man%20park%20fund Also another park planned, though I'll admit this one replaced a building that wasn't all that significant, and a stub street, but still this is way too many parks for what should be a dense business district: https://www.facebook.com/events/569470746513975/

But no one seems to have a firm answer that it is the case right?

Does anyone know if its a temporary park? The Greaters Building site is also going to be a park and a 10 min walk will get you to what I think is one of the best urban park's in the country Eden Park, does the neighborhood really need more parks? Look at the Big Dig where a massive ring of parks created a massive dead zone where there would have been activity otherwise, that's what I'm worried about. Though it also kind of irks me that the location of that park highlights an unfortunate building.

I guess we should just rename this neighborhood Walnut Park, half the freaking neighborhood is going to be parks at this rate! https://www.facebook.com/GreenManPark It also highlights the amazing Vinyl sided crap built behind it, I was hoping for properly zoned infill to block that junk but guess what, nope.

^-Just as long as fountain news won't be gone after this happens (one of the best kept secrets in downtown).

No one has mentioned the theme of this restuarant which has been kind of sort of described as an italian place but with other european influences. I'm not sure how the design fits the theme here. Kaze at least has an increadible "Japan cool" aesthetic making it look like something out of a post-modern art gallery in Tokyo - its theme is consistent and impressive showing a deep understanding of the aesthetic it pulls from. This place is a mess, even good designers have their duds, though this isn't completely ready yet and perhaps we should reserve judgement until opening day.

Great post. I would add one more thing, since most people think of transit as being a social welfare program, then talk to people about how its far more than just that. I think that's an angle I like to use being a choice rider living in a city where transit isn't viewed as a social welfare program but as a means to get around. The UP North commuter train for instance carries much of the elite of Chicago every day reducing much traffic from non traditional transit users in the process. - Cincinnatians need to be educated at the lifestyle changes transit will bring not how its a way to get poor people to work (though that is a benefit).

So it was just administrative offices for when the film industry was vertically integrated?

Does anyone happen to know what Warner Bros actually did in Cincinnati? Did they actually film movies there? That Warner Bros building on Central has puzzled me for many years.

I'm surprised its by the guys who run Kaze, as Kaze probably has one of the coolest/hippest interior's in Cincinnati - it looks like something out of a much larger city.

Did this get resolved?

Yeah I've been out there, and that line serves a very different purpose than Cincinnati's. It helps give Kenosha a bit of a small time resort feel which is how I think they are branding themselves due to de-industrialization killing the original economy of that town.

Fills in a glaring gap in one of the city's most active nightlife districts (also along the streetcar line too!)